Creation

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PSALM 117 – PRAISE THE LORD

(Psalm 117:1&2) Praise the Lord all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.  For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord.

In this basic exaltation from the psalmist, we find the answer to all the difficulties of this world including world peace.  He wants us all to praise the Lord.  Why should we do this?  The simple answer is because of God’s great love toward us and his faithfulness that endures forever. 

Who is this God that we should praise him?  Well, let’s see.  He created the earth and us.  Now there’s a good start.  Life itself is from him, and it only exists through him.  When we rejected his love, rebelled against him, and brought sin into his creation, he went to great extremes to offer us forgiveness even to the point of sacrificing his Son.  In return for all the sin, death, and destruction his created ones have brought into his creation, God has loved us and has been faithful to redeem us.

We know that we live in a world filled with sin, death, and all kinds of misery for which we the people of the earth are at fault.  The solution according to the writer of Psalm 117 is to: “Praise the Lord all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.”    And the psalmist gave us the reasons why we should praise him.

Think about what it would be like if all the inhabitants of the earth began praising the Lord. It would put God at the center of our focus, and joining together in praise would open the door for us to perhaps love one another.

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WE ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE

(Romans 1:20) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Though our world is scarred by sin and deprivation, it is still beautiful and amazing.  Photographers make a living selling photos of the beauty and wonder of the earth. Scientists are forever making phenomenal discoveries about God’s creation.  Paul tells us that the contents of creation demonstrate God’s invisible qualities, and that they have been clearly seen. 

Take for example: we now know that all matter is composed from a collection of atoms, we have also discovered that there are sub-atomic particles, and all living matter is developed from a DNA chain.  We know that these things exist, but we can’t see them. In our modern times perhaps we have identified some of God’s invisible qualities.  He makes wonderful things both large and minute.

Three thousand years ago David looked up at the night sky and declared, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them (Psalm 8:3&4) ?”  God’s attributes have indeed been clearly seen since the time of creation. 

Our knowledge of the world and its content has indeed exploded in the last few centuries, so Paul’s words should be inordinately more profound in leading us to God.  Why then do people still try to deny the existence of God? 

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FORGIVENESS OF SIN (1)

  (Romans 3:23) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

In order to understand forgiveness of sin, let’s look at sin, clarify what it is, and review how we all became sinners.  Disobedience to God is the base definition of sin. Sin came into the world when Adam and eve disobeyed God.  God told Adam and eve to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or they would certainly die.  They ate of that tree. Death and self-awareness then entered into God’s creation.  From that time they and their offspring would be self-aware and have the knowledge of good and evil.  This opened the door to continued disobedience to God.  Humans wanted to satisfy themselves, thus they turned their back on God and sought their own way.  Their own way led them into evil. 

God loved his created ones, and he wanted to save them from themselves.  Living in a land of evil is not what he wanted for them.  His plan to redeem them was set in motion.  The goal of his plan was to make a way for forgiveness of sins and open the door for his beloved to return to fellowship with him.  The Old Testament scriptures walk us through how God patiently worked his plan.  All the time he was working toward our redemption.

Evil filled the earth and God brought a flood to reboot creation.  Noah built an ark as God commanded him.  He and his family stayed on the ark till God rescued them.  The world Noah and his family found when they left the ark was greatly changed.  Mankind’s life expectancy was shortened; meat was now part of their food, and the earth began the process of repopulation.

Time moved on, and the people began to fill the earth.  God called Abram to father a people who he chose to carry out his plan.  The story of these chosen people then filled the pages of the Old Testament scriptures.  Next week we’ll look into the culmination of God’s plan. 

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PEACE WITH GOD

(Romans 5:1) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Romans 5:10) For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

In war people are at odds with each other.  Their relationship is broken.  Hatred and distrust guide their interactions, and this causes them to fight with and kill each other.  When a peace treaty is finally signed, the opportunity to rebuild their relationship becomes possible.  With man, the hurts and attitudes that caused them to be at war, and the horrors that came about during the war, stand in the way of reconciliation.  There is great mistrust to overcome.  It often takes generations for forgiveness to slowly enter the hearts of the opponents.  This is the way of humans, but it is not the way of God.

When Jesus paid for our sins on the cross and ushered in new life for us through his resurrection, God was immediately ready for us to return to him.  God’s great love for us, welcomed us into reconciliation with him. Jesus made peace with God possible.

This is how we became God’s enemies.  In the beginning we rebelled against God.  He warned us of the consequences if we rebelled, but we chose to ignore the warning.  We ate from the forbidden tree, and death entered God’s creation. Our rebellion devastated his entire creation. This produced a great separation between us and God, and it made us his enemy.  In spite of our bad behavior, God, driven by his infinite love, worked out a way for us to return to him.

So, here we are facing the greatest peace treaty ever offered.  All we have to do is trust God and open ourselves to a renewed relationship with him.  What we will receive in return is eternal life in a recreated new world that is full of peace and love.  These terms sound like a great opportunity.  I’m accepting.  How about you?

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THE SOURCE OF TRUTH

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1)

The Bible is a great source for understanding the world in which we live. These first words from the Bible answer the fundamental question about where did the world we know come from.  There are those who would say this is myth and give you the alternative explanation that it all happened by accident.  I find it hard to except that the intricate details and creativity found in the universe came about by accident, but let’s move on.

The Bible also describes the characteristics of the creator.  We learn to know him as we read about his interactions with his creation, and we find that he loves us.  Through prayer and worship we communicate with him, and he in turn speaks to us.

In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us many lessons about how we should live.  Life is so much easier and fulfilling when we live this life according to Jesus’ teaching and avoid the ways of the world.  However, we find this hard to do.

The Bible also explains that due to our rebellion against God we have inherited a sinful nature.  This sinful nature resists God’s instructions and wants to live this life without God.  God in his great love for us is constantly working to draw us back to himself.  All of this information is right there in the Bible.  If you desire to know the truth, read this one-of-a-kind book. 

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PSALM 8, A PSALM OF DAVID

When we look with wonder into the heavens at night, we connect with the billions of others who have lived on the earth through the centuries.  There is in us a great awe as we survey the vastness of the heavens.  We are inclined to speculate about where it all came from.  For King David there was no doubt that his God had created all that he saw.  And in creation, he saw the glory of his God.  In Psalm 8 he voiced, “How majestic is your name in all the earth.”

In my quest to understand God, King David, “a man after God’s own heart” (See 1 Samuel 13:14), sets a perspective of God that is foundational.  To understand God, I need to see how big he is.  You can’t get any bigger than the creator of heaven and earth.  Everything I know and understand, plus an infinite amount beyond, was created by God.  He’s big!  Yet he allows praise from the mouths of little children to silence his enemies.  God is big, and he is humble.

What draws the attention of this mighty creator?  Human beings are at the center of his creation.  In our original state we were created just a little less than God himself.  We are created in his image.  He made us rulers over all the creature of the earth.  David’s response to these thoughts; “How majestic is your name in all the earth!”

As I look into the night sky, the words of Psalm 8 always bring, from deep in my soul, a resounding praise.  How amazing are you my God that you can create these limitless expanses, yet I am important to you.  Thank you God for loving me, redeeming me, and giving me an eternal future with you.

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FAITH

(Hebrews 11:1-3) Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  This is what the ancients were commended for.  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). This verse from Proverbs has been a pillar of guidance for me throughout my Christian life.  I have come to understand that to do what this passage directs is an act of faith.  Today I’d like to look into faith.  Hebrews chapter 11 is called the faith chapter because it focuses on faith.  The first three verses give us a great definition of faith.  Faith is simply believing in what we don’t see.

The Bible, from beginning to end, is given to us to assist in building our faith.  It tells us what existed before us and what exists in the unseen world.  Our journey begins with faith, just a little faith, and that faith grows as we seek the God who is unseen.  He touches us in our inner being, and we experience his presence.  We find joy and new life as we grow in our knowledge of him.

Hebrews 11:6 – And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.      Here in Hebrews 11:6 we read about this process of starting with a little faith, and God rewarding us in a growing relationship with him.    As our faith in him grows, we approach the place where we can trust in him with all our hearts and surrender our understanding to him. 

The Message translation states our Hebrews 11:1-3 scripture like this, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living.  It’s our handle on what we can’t see.”  Growing in trust and faith in our God is a quest all believers share, and this quest is filled along the way with rewards from the God who loves us.

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THE SOURCE OF LOVE

(1Corinthians 13:4-8a) Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails …..

  In these verses, The Apostle Paul gives us a definition of agape love, God’s love.  These are the characteristics of the love God has for his creation, and especially for us the crown of his creation.  This is also the love he wants us to have for each other.  Jesus said to his apostles, “This is my command: Love each other” (John 15:17).

Where did love originate?  Only one answer presents its self, and that is from God.  The Creator fashioned all that is in the temporal world, so it’s a logical assumption that love came from him. This is what the Apostle John has to say in chapter 5 of his first letter, verse 16 – “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”  He goes on to say in verse 19, “We love because he first loved us.”  Love is therefore inherent in God.  Love must have existed even before the creation within the triune of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

I have a desire to love more completely, and if you share this desire with me, we know that we must go to the source of love.  As I meditate on the list of what love is, I am fully aware of how much I lack in loving God and loving others, but this list also speaks of how God loves me. I believe the secret is to first comprehend his love for me.  The more his love pours into my soul the greater the opportunity for it to flow out of me.  God is love, and he is the one in whom we can find true love.

Author’s note: Did you ever realize that God’s love is a very humble love?

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EASTER THE PIVOTAL MOMENT

Acts 17:28, “For in him we live and move and have our being.”

The life we have, the life we live, our very existence is in God. Contemplating this I realize that God is everything to us. All else diminishes by comparison. The Almighty created everything we know, everything we understand, the entire universe, and us. The creation and the history of it, to this day, is part of a plan that God set into motion from the very beginning.

Galatians 4:4-5 MSG, But the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law.

Everything Jesus did while here among us was part of God’s plan for us. Jesus suffered humiliation, torture, and a horrible death on the cross to fulfill God’s plan. When Jesus rose from the dead, our redemption and eternal life exploded forth into his creation. This was the pivotal moment in God’s eternal plan to have a loving eternal relationship with his created ones.

HAPPY EASTER!

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GOD AMONG US

As we join together in celebrating God coming to be among us, I wanted to offer something I wrote back in 2014. We remember that Christmas is celebrating God’s plan for victory over sin and death. I hope your Christmas is full of joy and peace. Merry Christmas!

 

The recent flood of movies based on ancient mythology depicts gods with the more base human characteristics of violence, greed, covetousness and murder. The hero god battles the dark side and wins in the end. What a great story line! The same basic story line found in the popular super hero movies. I love them. I’ve been to many. We all love to see good win over evil. There seems to be a feeling of vindication when the hero wins. I like feeling vindicated.  But, (you knew a but was coming) what if the evil that needs to be defeated is inherent in us? You know those base human characteristics. How’s a super hero or a god going to overcome that?

Now think how the actual event of God walking among us differs from the good vs. evil stories we all love. Jesus came as a helpless baby. He walked unassumingly on the earth as one of us. Who knew that he was an all-powerful being through whom the earth was created? He never whipped out his sword and killed the bad guys. Actually, the bad guys killed him. But, (Yes, we know this but.) He rose from the dead. Now there’s a great story line, and it’s a true story. Don’t you love those stories based on real events. It seems to give the story a lot more impact.

Yes, a great story, but how was the victory won? He didn’t kill all of us who have inherent evil. We’re grateful for that. What he did do was:

Romans 8:3b God….. (sent) his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man…

By surrendering himself (all-powerful being-God) to death, which appeared to his enemy like defeat, his death condemned sin in sinful man. The victory came in his death and was displayed for all to see by his resurrection. This is a powerful real life story that has impacted us for thousands of years. Wow, God really did come to earth and walk among us. It was very different than our favorite stories. The ways of the real God are not our ways:

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”